May 15, 2011

Baixa - Chiado, Lisboa.

Big plans today: I woke up at 5 a.m. in order to get in time for goodies at Feira da Ladra, Lisbon's flea market. The market is on from dawn till evening, but it's in the early morning when you can find, for example, cool shoes for €5. Well, a 30 minutes train ride and one bus ride later, I found out the market was only held on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Hello sunshine, hello Cristina...Very well, I said, it was about 7.30 a.m. so I could feel the city waking up. I love mornings with their promises of new beginnings, with inviting smells coming from the bakeries about to open, that soapy clean scent on the streets... Except on Sundays, when the city looks like it's deserted! :-)I'll have fun anyway, I said to myself as I started to walk uphill to Chiado, a fashionable area filled with cafes, restaurants and shops, the place where all the parties start. (A Brasileira cafe right next to Chiado subway stop is a very famous meeting place, for example.)Nothing was open, not even H&M (why, why?) so I walked further down to Baixa (more closed restaurants and shops), ending withPraça do Comércio which opens with a beautiful view of River Tejo.A cool thing about Lisbon is the contrast between its vast squares and narrow streets. It's an adventure walking up and down, getting a glimpse of daily life - like neighbors in front of the local bar whistling the day away, clothes hang to dry at each window or seeing some fragile tree just burst out and growing from a stone wall and everything just quivering of life - and then arriving in a huge square that's monumentally still. You really have to experience it!It was noon already so I decided to head home - not before buying The Adventures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (yay, I found an open shop). I tried to take photos using the self-timer function (as no one was around), but this is what I got:Nevertheless I hope you enjoyed reading about early morning trips to Lx (short for Lisbon) and I wish you a fun week ahead!(Feira da Ladra, I'll be back.)